Six people die every day during winters in the north west because their homes are too cold, according to campaigners. New analysis of official data published by Greenpeace UK estimates there have been more than 8,000 excess winter deaths in the region since 2013.
This means that, on average, six people in the North West have died due to living in cold, damp housing conditions every day during the winter months – December to March – over the last 10 years. Among them, was Barbara Bolton from Bury who died in late 2022.
The 87-year-old died after she developed hypothermia having told medics she could not afford her heating. An inquest last year heard that the ‘loving’ and ‘caring’ great-grandmother was found ‘slumped’ in her freezing cold’ kitchen by a relative, weeks before Christmas.
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That month, as temperatures dropped to double figures below zero while energy prices skyrocketed, hypothermia cases in England soared by 82 per cent. Earlier this year, Bolton GP Helen Wall said many of her patients are still choosing between heating and eating.
The government says it has invested billions of pounds in energy efficiency measures. But Greenpeace has accused successive governments of failing to reinstate funding that was scrapped after Prime Minister David Cameron decided to cut the ‘green crap’.
Subsidies for loft and wall insulation were slashed in 2013, resulting in a sharp drop in government-funded energy efficiency installations which fell by 90 per cent in just one year of the cuts coming into effect. According to Greenpeace, over the past ten years, government backed energy efficiency installations have continued to fall while thousands freeze to death in cold homes.
The campaigning group staged a protest outside Parliament yesterday (March 14) where activists placed hundreds of headstones made from insulation boards engraved with a dedication to the 70,463 who have died from cold homes in the UK since 2013. An eight-metre long funeral wreath message reading, ‘Cold Homes Cost Lives’ was laid in front of the headstones in Vitoria Tower Gardens.
Paul Morozzo, Greenpeace UK’s fuel poverty campaigner, said: “Thousands of people are literally freezing to death in their own homes during winter. And not only have successive governments failed to prevent this needless and shocking loss of life but they have fuelled this silent public health crisis by slashing insulation funding and failing to deliver a proper scheme to upgrade our cold, damp, draughty homes.
“This persistent failure to protect lives in one of the easiest ways possible is also driving the rise in fuel poverty, the cost of living and climate crises – since well insulated homes cost less to heat and cut carbon emissions. Cold homes cost lives and we urgently need a government willing to invest at least £6 billion every year to end this national scandal once and for all.”
Government figures released last month show that there are currently 3.17m households in the UK living in fuel poverty. Poorly insulated homes also contribute to the poor health and are estimated to cost the NHS more than £850m a year in England.
Housing is also directly responsible for around 14 per cent of the UK’s total greenhouse gas emissions, driven, in part, by the large proportion of uninsulated or poorly insulated homes, according to Greenpeace UK. The organisation is calling on the government to invest at least £6bn every year over the next decade to deliver a national home retrofit programme and introduce regulations to significantly improve the energy efficiency of private rented-sector and social housing, while demanding Labour would do the same.
The government has allocated £1bn to upgrade 300,000 of Britain’s least energy efficient homes through the Great British Insulation Scheme with £20bn invested into energy efficiency over a 10-year period. A government spokesperson said: “Everyone has the right to a warm, secure and decent home, and we expect landlords to meet our energy efficiency standards before letting properties.
“Almost half of all homes in England now have an EPC rating of C or above, up from just 14pc in 2010. We have also allocated £20 billion for energy efficiency over this parliament and next, supporting insulation for around 500,000 homes.”